As many of you will have heard on social media, Autodesk turns 40 this year.
More specifically this coming Monday, January 30th, is the 40th anniversary of the original organizational meeting held at John Walker’s former home in Mill Valley, California. (You can find details in this recent post from John.)
The anniversary of Autodesk’s official incorporation and initial stock distribution is on April 26th, but Autodesk as an informal entity already existed from the end of January. Although the company wasn’t called Autodesk at that point, as that wasn’t fixed until some time in April… among the other candidate names under somewhat-serious consideration were Command Line Technology and Coders of the Lost Spark. How different things might have been!
In April of 1982 the name Autodesk still referred to a software tool referred to as an “instant filing system”. Autodesk as a company name was seemingly a placeholder that ended up sticking for lack of a better alternative.
I…